Thickeners

Thickeners are sedimentation tanks used for a particular type of solid-liquid separation, which is called thickening. Such thickeners make use of the difference in specific mass between the liquid phase and the solid particles that are suspended in that liquid phase. 

In mineral technology, thickening is used to increase the solids concentration of pulps to values suitable for subsequent operations, such as pumping, filtration, or conditioning with flotation reagents. The function of thickeners is to receive a diluted pulp and generate a product (underflow) that exhibits higher solids concentration than the feed.